


Behind Closed Doors

by keyboardclicks



Category: Layton Brothers: Mystery Room
Genre: Angst, Canon Timeline, F/M, Ficlet, Past Relationship(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-20
Updated: 2015-08-20
Packaged: 2018-04-15 15:56:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4612629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keyboardclicks/pseuds/keyboardclicks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"It's been four years.  I've tried to move on... you should do the same."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Behind Closed Doors

       “I’m sorry.”

       “Al, just stop it.”

       “But I _am_.”

       “I know.”

       It was the same conversation they’d had dozens of times before.

       “I just don’t understand.”

       “I’m not sure I do, either.”

       Hilda Pertinax sat, back straight and chin high, on the Mystery Room’s sofa, and across from her sat Alfendi Layton.  Or at least… he looked like Alfendi Layton.  Sounded like him, too.  The man also had all of Alfendi Layton’s memories, from childhood to that very moment.

       Whoever he was, though, he was distinctly not Alfendi.  This man was quiet and considerate, even charmingly shy; he was a good listener, very empathetic, and tried his best not to step on the toes of others.  He was a good man, a kind man.

       But he was not Alfendi.

       The Alfendi Layton she knew was loud and crude, inconsiderate of others and uncaring about their bruised feelings.  He was rash and impulsive, made threats at the slightest annoyance and hated to be interrupted but god damn if he wasn't the most intelligent man Hilda had ever met.  This person in front of her looked like Alfendi, sounded like Alfendi, but wasn't Alfendi.  Alfendi had been missing for a good four years, and this man only used his name.

       “Can’t you at least tell me… what’s wrong with me?  Why you suddenly hate me so much?”

       “I’ve told you before, Al,” Hilda sighed, exasperated. “I don’t hate you.  I just-”

       “-don’t love me anymore,” the inspector finished, eyes flitting towards his own drumming fingertips before moving back to her face.  “Right you… you’ve told me that.”  It felt like a rock in his stomach, like a knot in the back of his throat that tightened when either of them spoke.  “And there’s nothing I can do..?”

       Hilda didn’t respond immediately, first bringing a hand up to rub at her temples.  “You know the answer to that, Al.”

       “Then can you at least tell me why?”  He leaned forward on his desk.  “Please, Hilda; I just want to know what I did.  How I hurt you or upset you… I want to know how I can fix it.”  

       He looked desperate, like some sad puppy that had been kicked into a puddle.  Hilda felt sorry for him, even more so when the only answer she had to offer was, “You just… changed.”

       Al was quiet for a moment, looking down as he twisted his hands and began muttering another apology.  It seemed like he’d done almost nothing but apologize for the last four years.

       Hilda, for her part was tired of apologies.  “Don’t say it,” she begged.  “...please… just don’t say it.”

       He watched her from over the desk, unspeaking, as asked, and unmoving.  Hilda’s jaw clenched and she swallowed hard, eyes closed to purposefully avoid his gaze as she tilted her head up and said, “I just want you go back to how you were.  I want you to be Alfendi again, my Alfendi.”

       “I don’t-”

       “I want you to argue with me!” she continued.  “Curse, yell, groan, roll your eyes!  God, Al, anything!  Do something that makes me want to push you off a god damn bridge!”

       Alfendi stared at her, startled.  If he didn’t know Hilda as well as he did, he would say that she would start crying right then and there.  But Hilda Pertinax didn’t cry in front of others, especially, he remembered, in front of him.  That day he’d woken up from his coma and told them what he remembered about Keelan Makepeace she’d run straight out of the room, and even then she’d come back five minutes later with a perfect poker face and no sign of tears.  The woman was made of steel, really.

       But even steel could bend.

       “Why would I want to argue with you, Hilda?”

       “Oh, I don’t know!” she griped.  “It’s just what you always did!  What we always did!  We’d argue over everything, big and small, and get so at each other that Justin would have to make sure we didn’t just kill each other right then and there… but we’d always laugh about it in the end.”  Alfendi swore he heard her chuckle.  “Don’t you remember..?  One time we spent an entire day arguing over pasta of all things.  You love yours with so much on it that I said I wouldn’t even mind eating mine plain, just to bug you…”  Another almost laugh.  “And you went on and on and on about how disgusting that was.  And I don’t even like pasta that much, let alone plain pasta I just said it to get a rise out of you because I thought it’d make something good for us to laugh at later…”  Oh yes, she was definitely laughing, but it was a dry and bitter laugh.  “We never even got to laugh about it…  You had to be an idiot and run off and nearly get yourself killed..!  God, Al, what were you thinking?!  Were you thinking?!  Justin and I told you not to run off like that; it was dangerous!  Especially by yourse-”

       “Oh will you shut up for five seconds!?” Alfendi suddenly cut across, rubbing his temples.  “God you never end!”

       Hilda shot up in her seat, nearly jumping up from the sofa in shock.  “Wha-”

       “I know I shouldn’t have gone after Makepeace myself, okay?  But I’m the one who was in a coma for four months and who nearly died so I don’t see where you get off lecturing me like that!  Haven’t I suffered enough without having to hear you nagging at me?”

       For one of very few times in her life, Hilda found herself speechless.  That… that was Al, her Al!  That was the fire in his eyes and the venom in his voice that she’d grown to know and to love.  Had she not been locked to her seat by shock she may very well have launched herself across his desk and kissed him. Through her surprise, though, she could only manage to speak, and so said, “Well… sorry for being worried about your safety, Mr. High-And-Mighty!  And if you’ll remember, Justin and I, not to mention your father, were visiting you every day waiting and hoping that you’d actually wake up!  So don’t tell me you’re the only one who suffered from your little stunt!”

       Well… that was nearly the truth; Hilda visited often but hardly every day.  She just hadn’t been able to handle it, watching her Al sleep day after day, not responding to anything or anyone.  Justin had gone every day, though; he was a good friend like that, and he’d always made sure to tell Hilda if there were any changes in Al’s condition.

       “I’m the High-And-Mighty one?” Al spat.  “You want to call me the High-And-Mighty one when you’re the one who le--”  He stopped suddenly, mid word, and put his face in his hand.  Hilda could hear him groan, as if in pain.

       “Al?”  

       No reply.

       “Al?  Are you alright?”

       He sat there a moment, breathing heavily, before lifting his head up again and looking at Hilda.  He licked his lips, tucked his hair behind his ears, and smiled.

       Hilda felt her heart sink.

       “Sorry about that, Hilda… I’m not sure what came over me.”

       No…

       “Anyway… I just… I know I’ve said it before…  And you probably don’t want to hear it again...”

       She’d been so close!  She’d had him… her Al had been sitting there across the desk, volatile and irritable and sarcastic.  It had been him.

       But he was gone again, as quickly as he’d shown up.

       “But I… You know I still feel the same way about you, Hilda.  I still love you.”

       That was it, the straw that broke the camel's back.  Hearing that from him, from his voice and from his lips but knowing that it wasn’t the man she loved, was the last thing Hilda could take.  She stood, turning and making it to the door in two steps.

       “I’m sorry, Al,” she said.  “But I can’t accept that.”

       “Hilda..?”

       “It’s been four years.”  Hand on the doorknob, yet not enough strength to turn it.  “I’ve tried to move on… you should do the same.”

       “I…” his voice was some strange mix of stunned and quivering with every syllable.  “I’m sorry.”

       She sighed.  “I know you are.”

       The knob finally turned in her hand and she had left the room, leaving Alfendi alone at his desk.  He watched the door, hoping that Hilda would come traipsing back through it but knowing such an idea was absurd.  Hilda never did anything she didn’t mean; if she was gone, she was gone.

       Still, when the door opened and Lucy stepped inside, Alfendi found himself foolishly disappointed.

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by this http://mystery-room.tumblr.com/post/126991361689/ lovely piece of fanart.


End file.
